Vehicles such as automobiles generally are provided with seat belt devices for restraining an occupant in a seat that includes a seat portion on which the occupant sits and a backrest portion positioned back of the occupant. Such a seat belt device includes a webbing for restraining the occupant, a retractor for retracting the webbing, a guide anchor that is disposed on a vehicle body side and guides the webbing, a belt anchor for fixing the webbing to the vehicle body side, a buckle disposed on a side surface of the seat, and a tongue disposed on the webbing. The tongue is fitted into the buckle to restrain the occupant in the seat with the webbing. In such the seat belt device, a first end of the webbing is fixed to the belt anchor, and a second end of the webbing is inserted into the guide anchor to be connected to the retractor.
It is becoming common that such the retractor has a pretensioner that eliminates slack in the webbing in an emergency such as a vehicle collision (e.g., refer to Patent Literatures 1 and 2). Pretensioners described in Patent Literatures 1 and 2 include a pinion gear coupled to a spool for winding a webbing, a load transmission element for rotating the pinion gear in a vehicle collision, and a tube (pipe) for containing the load transmission element. The load transmission element described in Patent Literature 1 is a plurality of mass bodies (balls), and the load transmission element described in Patent Literature 2 is a long slender rod member made of a resin.